Thursday December 30, 2010 6:13 pm

Hackers claim to have jailbroken the PS3

During the Chaos Communication Conference, a group of hackers claimed that they discovered the SonyPlaystation 3 private key, which the device uses to verify code and run its DRM system, preventing users from running games that hasn't been approved by Sony. In a long talk, they described the process of how the system works, and what it took to break it down. Consoles running the latest firmware are currently unable to run homebrew games, but if the claims are true, this would give any user complete control over their system. While it doesn't mean much for the average user right now, it could lead to the ability to run Linux, or any other software on the console. In a nutshell, it seems the code which gives the device random numbers to generate the crypto needed, instead returns a predictable number, as illustrated above. Hit the jump for videos of the talk.

There would be more money for developers if the used game market didn’t exist…which is why downloadable content (only) will be the trend very soon. I don’t think they get worked up over a small segment of the market with the skills to hack their machines.